By Walt Wiley -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 7, 2004

Meals on Wheels is as beset as any other Sacramento County department with budget pressures this year, but changes in the world of senior meals have freed up funds and allowed the program's waiting list to disappear.

"It's the first time I can remember when we didn't have a waiting list," said Janine Brown, manager of the county's Senior Nutrition Services Program. "The waiting list was up to 700. We were getting 80 people a month wanting to get on the program and we couldn't take on any more," she said.

It made for a heartbreaking situation because the people who were being turned away often would have to go into a nursing home.

A typical client might be Rita Allen, 91, who lives alone in a small apartment in the Town and Country area, existing on less than $748 per month, which qualifies her as a very-low-income participant and eligible for occasional food bags from the Food Link program.

"This program keeps me alive," said Allen as she accepted her daily hot meal the other day. The meal would be parceled out, she said, so that she'd have a bit to eat for supper plus milk to go with her oatmeal in the morning.

"My weight's dropped since I started eating like this, but it's probably good for me. I've gone from 170 to 119," she said.

Such stories are common, said Barbara Finnestead, the program's supervising dietitian. "That 600-to 800-calorie meal is supposed to be a third of what they eat, not everything," she said.

It has reached the point that the Sacramento SPCA has begun donating dry dog and cat food for pet-owning clients, she said, "so they won't give their own food to their pets."

Her program prepares and delivers 480,000 meals a year at a cost of $7.48 per meal. It includes fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and a nutritious entree, plus the daily nutrients recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The hot portion of the meal is delivered either hot or frozen and ready to be heated in a microwave or conventional oven, all sealed in a high-tech paper and plastic tray much like a TV dinner.

Clients receive five meals a week. "If you eat three meals a day, seven days a week, you get 21 meals, but for a lot of these seniors five is it. We're going to try to start delivering frozen meals for them on the weekends," Brown said.
"That's why this is such good news. We'll be able to sign up new clients and we may be able now to start a breakfast program," Brown said.

It's not that the money spigot has suddenly been turned on, she said, but rather that the way seniors use meal programs is shifting.

Countywide, the program operates 23 congregate dining centers where people 60 and older can eat a noon meal five days a week. But use at those centers had been falling off even as the waiting list for meals on wheels has been growing.

Fewer and fewer seniors are gathering for the noontime meals, but there are a growing number who are older and homebound - and in need of the Meals on Wheels program.

So Brown put the homebound meals back on track by taking $28,000 from the dining rooms program and putting it with $12,000 the state had released.

There are 1,292 clients in the program now. It is built around a state-of-the art food service kitchen in leased space in the old Oscar Meyer factory at 30th and D streets, with 72 staff members and 500 volunteers. More volunteers are always needed, Brown said.

As proof that the program is necessary, Brown said, "When we started calling the people on the waiting list, the sad thing was all the people we couldn't find - they'd died or moved away or gone into a nursing home after getting on the waiting list."

She said about once a month a volunteer will find one of the clients dead.

"Oh, we hate it, but it means we've succeeded - the ones who die at home have lived out their days still independent, which is what we want."

About the Writer
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The Bee's Walt Wiley can be reached at (916) 321-1063 or wwiley@sacbee.com.

Meals on Wheels at a glance
480,000 meals a year
$7.48 cost per meal
23 congregate dining centers operated for noon meals five days a week
1,292 clients in the program
72 staff members
500 volunteers

For more information call Meals on Wheels at (916) 874-4701